Recap: Friday Q&A with Chocks and A #74 (June 15, 2018)

This is a breakdown of the important (and not so important) topics of last Friday’s (June 15, 2018) Friday Q&A with Chocks and A #74.

REMINDERS

True Form Midna pre-orders are now closed. Thank you so much for all your support! You can still jump on the waitlist for a chance at pre-ordering this figure if you already haven't.

Sonic the Hedgehog Boom8 Series – Combo Pack 1 and 2 are still open for pre-orders until 9 July 2018. If this does well, they can re-open pre-orders again for the next batch.

Because the two Exclusive variants combined didn't reach 1,000 pieces in sales during the initial 2-week pre-order period, Guts: The Black Swordsman pre-orders will remain open until it hits its target or until before production starts. (UPDATE: 619 pre-orders as of 1 June 2018)

CONFIRMED – CRYSTAL DRAGON WILL GO LIVE FOR PRE-ORDER NEXT WEEK, 22 JUNE 2018!

WEEK IN REVIEW

Shoutout to Capcom and Bandai Namco for having F4F statues on display in their booth during E3 2018, and a shoutout as well to the Club members that were in attendance during the event and took some photos of them. The highlight was, of course, Mimic as it was its first time to be revealed publicly.

Alex and Chockles were discussing their thoughts on some of the E3 2018 announcements.

Would you be interested in Activision's new IP, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice? It was announced during E3 and is currently in development by the same developers of Dark Souls, FromSoftware. Kindly let us know in the comments section below.

To win the last two giveaways (one PlayStation 4 copy and one Xbox One copy), people just had to leave a comment on this live stream using the hashtag #F4FDS4LIFE. This too is the hashtag for the week for a chance to win 500 reward points.

F4F hired a new member to join the F4F team. Ting is now part of the multimedia team.

Remind Alex next week for the Edition Size of Shiranui and True Form Midna.

Alex's tee-hee for the week:

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA UPDATE: The next pre-order from this line is going to be Sheikah Slate.

SHEIKAH SLATE UPDATE: Not yet approved by Nintendo; quite a few changes to be made; pre-order date will take into consideration Rider Link pre-order date

TRUE FORM MIDNA UPDATE: Leg underneath the skirt is now black; LED bulb will not fade the paint over time

ZERO UPDATE: Alex posted a new design poll but didn't receive much activity, so he's thinking if it's still worth changing.

WARP STAR KIRBY UPDATE: Alex posted a color variant poll to gauge the Club's interests. Blue is the clear winner. No companions are included in this statue.

BOWSER UPDATE: Release date looking to be Q4 2018; scheduled to go up for production after Varia Suit, which is currently deep into production

ALUCARD UPDATE: Production has started.

BERSERK UPDATE: The next pre-order from this line is going to be Skull Knight.

ARTORIAS THE ABYSSWALKER SD UPDATE: Slightly delayed due to LED issues; should hopefully finish in a week's time plus a few more days to organize shipping arrangements

SPYRO THE DRAGON UPDATE: Not yet near shipping stages

SONIC 25TH ANNIVERSARY DIORAMA UPDATE: Estimated to arrive in F4F's warehouses this July

SPIKE SPIEGEL UPDATE: Approved for pre-order; should be in the next month or so, just in time for the 20th anniversary; Alex will try to have this on display in the licensor's booth during Japan Expo 2018

MIMIC UPDATE: The chain dangling down will be given a motion feel to it to better capture the dynamism of the statue. The fine hairs all over Mimic's body is a design choice F4F proposed to FromSoftware, which they loved. The estimated date for pre-orders is Q3 2018 and more in-depth information will be available then.

RIDER LINK UPDATE: Now in the physical; in the process of being duplicated for painting

LAW UPDATE: Received approval from Bandai Namco to go into production; will still think about how to go about re-opening pre-orders

SONIC AND TAILS DIORAMA UPDATE: Engineering is difficult but they're working through it

The Exclusive version for the Dark Souls SD line doesn't necessarily have to be LED features. It will depend on the character.

AMATERASU LIFE-SIZE BUST UPDATE: Production is progressing now that Sonic 25th Anniversary Diorama is finished.

MORRIGAN AENSLAND UPDATE: Still in development; been tweaking the concept; no teaser for awhile

F4F cardholders will be offered as a standalone purchase. Having it for future statue releases is a different conversation.

ALPHONSE ELRIC UPDATE: Estimated to go up for pre-order this Summer 2018

MARIO ON YOSHI UPDATE: Alex will post a color variant poll when the time comes.

KAMINA UPDATE: No Definitive Edition

SHOVEL KNIGHT UPDATE: Estimated release date is Q4 2018

Alex could look into busts and prop lines for the Metal Gear Solid line.

GENOS UPDATE: Estimated to go up for pre-order in 2019

OTHER TOPICS

Chockles likes watching the World Cup for the good goals.

Alex likes playing strategy games, but he also said he isn't good at them since it involves managing resources, while jokingly referring to his managing of F4F as an example.

Alex had a conversation with Capcom about Resident Evil. Capcom only wants F4F to do the monsters if this were to be a thing.

Alex does have his favorite factories.

Licenses are not exclusive to specific factories. It will always depend on a ton of factors which factory will work on what.

Alex will post a character poll for My Hero Academia after the stream.

Would you be interested in statues from the Marvel's Spider-Man game? Kindly let them know in the comments section below.

F4F will think of ways to try and host a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament when the time comes.

Alex was looking for certain announcements from the Nintendo Direct during E3 2018 but was still excited overall.

No plans of attending New York Comic Con

Alex's vision for the company is to have self-sufficient staff so that he doesn't have to be hands-on with every department so that he can create more business deals with other licensors. This is something that he isn't used to yet since two years ago it was just himself, his wife, and his partner running the company.

Alex can look into turning cancelled orders into store credit on F4F's website to prevent their customers from losing their non-refundable deposit plus incurring administration fees. However, this may be incredibly complicated from an IT perspective.

All forms of official polls significantly influence F4F's decision-making.

F4F uses a 3D printer to print the first prototype, and it takes about 3-4 days of solid printing to finish before having to clean it up.

When painting, they normally start with the lighter colors first before applying the darker ones.

Alex supports England and China for the World Cup.

Alex finds it difficult to market to the Samurai Champloo audience since their numbers are tiny compared to other franchises such as Dark Souls.

Those affected by the Majora's Mask pre-order dilemma will still receive their compensation reward points once all orders have been shipped.

If Chocks could have anything made from the Legend of Zelda franchise, it would be Link from A Link to the Past; Alex's would be Tingle.

Alex doesn't know Nintendo's plans for the 20th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

No news on a new Legend of Zelda PVC statue

No plans to remake Link vs. Scervo Diorama

Alex would like to make statues from Resident Evil: Code Veronica.

The factories themselves are the biggest reason for production delays.

Alex has enough experience to know if a 3D render will translate well in the physical.

Statue prices increase over time due to the following factors: increase in workers' wages, exchange rates, general inflation of material prices, and the biggest factor of them all, the factory's power to choose which companies to produce for. There are significantly more players now in the industry and factories cannot produce for every single one of them, so they will choose the companies with the most competitive offers. This affects F4F, however, since their principle has always been to provide their customers value for money, so they do not jack up their prices like other companies do to compensate.

Alex could meet with the licensors of Darksiders during Gamescom 2018.

WHO DAT WHO DAT: There were three players this week since one player from last week had to leave the stream early. The answer was Kermit the Frog. The winners were JEAN-PHILIPPE VANIER (2,000 reward points), JAKE MEYER (1,000 reward points), and JON SKABLA (1,000 reward points).

To view everyone's questions from the Q&A portion of this episode, please click HERE.

If you want to have your questions answered by our very own Chocks and Alex, simply search "Chocks and A" in the F4F Official Collectors Club Facebook group and leave your questions in the comments section of the most recent thread prior the upcoming live stream. This thread is posted every Thursday of the week.